Villa Alba

This afternoon, we headed out to La Plata to visit the neighborhood of Villa Alba. We sat in on a weekly meeting of a group of 30 borrowers. The meetings are normally run by a bank worker who goes over the women's books with their weekly business accounts.

The meeting includes everyone discussing any problems they are having with their work or with their lives. What struck me at this meeting was how open and understanding these women were with each other. One woman was telling everyone how the heavy rains from the past two nights ruined her roof. She said she can't afford to get a new roof right now, but obviously, it's something she has to get immediately in this winter weather.

In true entrepreneurial spirit, the women (or as they call themselves, las chicas) decided to create a raffle for three computers that were donated to the group and use the raffle money to start a roof fund. This would mean that they loan one woman money for the her roof and overtime she would repay it. The fund would continue, so next time someone may need funds for a broken roof, they can borrow from the fund.

I was so impressed by this idea and the helping hand las chicas gave to one another. We are planning on visiting more of these meetings to better understand the community, and after getting to know the ladies better, be able to ask questions and gather data for our impact study.

Afterwards, as usual, the gang went out for food and we got back here pretty late. Here's a picture of Villa Alba. There are very few sidewalks and people tie their horses up on the sides of the road. As we took the bus ride from the city to the neighborhood the changes in living standards changed dramatically. When we walked around, one image that struck me was of a baby playing in the backyard next to a horse, which was malnorished and eating from the family's trash. This is one of our first experiences actually seeing the poverty of Argentina. In Buenos Aires, one is deceived that Argentina is a developed nation, but while BA may be well off in parts, the rest of the country is in need for growth and development.


Tomorrow evening, we are heading out for the long weekend (Thursday is Argentina's independence day) to Salta, which is a beautiful area in the northwest. We are taking a 19 hour bus ride there...that alone should be enough of an adventure! We won't be back until Monday, so expect a full report next week!